NEW YORK — Days before his favorite marathon, longtime Montclair Kimberley Academy coach Tom Fleming joined a prestigious group of running icons.

The Bloomfield and Glen Ridge native, a two-time New York Marathon champion, was posthumously inducted into the New York Road Runners Hall of Fame during a ceremony Thursday at the TCS New York City Marathon Pavilion in Central Park. Fleming was part of the five member Class of 2017.

Fleming, born in Long Branch and raised in Bloomfield, attended Bloomfield High School, where he began competitive running. He continued to run while attending William Paterson College – now William Paterson University – and earned All-America honors. It was during his senior year in college that he finished second in the Boston Marathon and finished first in the New York City Marathon.

This year's New York City Marathon will take place Sunday.

Margot Fleming speaks about her father Tom Fleming at his New York Road Runner Hall of Fame induction ceremony Nov. 2, 2017 in Central Park.(Photo: Joshua Jongsma/NorthJersey.com)

Around 15 people from MKA attended Thursday's ceremony, including current cross-country team captains Matt Petrocelli and Ana Schaller.

"Tom was the most honest person I’ve ever met," Petrocelli said. "He told you like it was."

Schaller said Fleming had a way of bringing the most out of athletes.

"There was a quality about him that made practice such that you couldn’t not give it your all," she said. "If you didn’t run your hardest you’d see it in his eyes that he knew you were capable of more."

The other inductees were Ryan Hall, Lornah Kiplagat, Orlando Pizzolato and Norbert Sander.

Bill Rodgers, a four-time winner of both the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon, spoke about Fleming during the ceremony and noted that friendship is forever. The two ran together and knew each other for more than 40 years.

"Fleming used to kick my butt," Rodgers said, noting how runners have a fierce competitive spirit but Fleming knew to cherish his family as well.

In June, the annual Sunset Classic in Bloomfield was named in his honor, and the Oval at Essex County Brookdale Park became the Tom Fleming Athletic Complex.

In addition to coaching at MKA, he taught fourth grade at the private school for 18 years.

In Bloomfield, Fleming was also coach and founder of the Nike Running Room, which won three consecutive USA National Cross Country Championships in the 1990s.

Margot Fleming thanked everyone for being there for her father, especially the MKA students.

"He loved you guys very much," she said. "He’s so proud of you and just keep his legacy alive. Keep running."

Email: jongsma@northjersey.com

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Track and field coach Gene Leporati leads his Verona team in a walk around the track Thursday, April 19, 2017, for Tom Fleming. Fleming died of a heart attack at the track on the previous day. Leporati, of Wayne, knew Fleming for about 40 years.
Kevin Wexler/NorthJersey.com